The longtime chief trial counsel for the Norfolk District Attorney’s office has entered the race for the top job.

The Committee to Elect Greg Connor was established on Friday, according to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, or OCPF.

“This is really the culmination of my career,” Greg Connor told the Herald on Friday. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime to continue to serve this community I have been a part of for my entire life.”

He said he expects to formally announce his candidacy for Norfolk DA next week and has already told the office he is resigning in order to run for office. He told the Herald his last day is May 6.

Longtime Norfolk DA Michael Morrissey announced last month that he was not running for reelection.

“I’ve never been a politician before,” Connor said. “I’ve never run for office so I wanted to be sure to do everything right.”

Connor, except for a stretch of living in Boston to attend Boston College — a 1997 graduate — and Boston College Law School — a 2000 graduate — says he has spent his entire life in Norfolk County.

“I’ve raised my family for the last 20 years in Milton,” he said. “I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with people from every community. That’s why I’m in it, this is my home.”

Connor, a Democrat of Milton, has been with the Norfolk DA’s office for 25 years and has spent nearly 10 years of that as the chief trial counsel. Readers may recognize his name from coverage of his successful prosecutions of two prominent recent cases.

In December, Connor successfully tried Brian Walshe for the Jan. 1, 2023, murder of his wife, Ana Walshe, in their Cohasset home. Ana Walshe’s body was never found, but a slew of suspicious internet searches about dismembering and disposing of bodies was found on an electronic device in the home.

In February 2024, Connor successfully tried Emanuel Lopes on all charges related to the murders of Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna and bystander Vera Adams in a July 2018 rampage.

Going back a few years, Connor also successfully prosecuted Radoslaw Czerkawski on 12 counts of felony animal cruelty for the abuse of a female pit bull named Kiya, who he starved, inflicted multiple broken bones, damaged her eyes and split her tongue — damage so severe that the dog had to be euthanized. It was known as the “Puppy Doe” case.

While he told the Herald that many of his cases have meant a lot to him, the Lopes prosecution was particularly impactful as he got to know Chesna’s family very well. And the case had a very personal connection to him.

In 1975, his father, who also served as an assistant district attorney, prosecuted Armand Therrien for the murder of Westwood Police Officer William Sheehan in the line of duty and under similar circumstances: two victims and a chaotic scene in which police officers didn’t expect fatal violence.

Connor earned $182,395 in total pay in 2025, according to state payroll records.

Former federal prosecutor Adam Deitch, who was one of the attorneys who prosecuted Black Lives Matter charity fraudster Monica Cannon-Grant, is also running for Norfolk DA.

Deitch had this to say of Connor’s candidacy: “While I respect anyone who decides to run for office in today’s political environment, Norfolk County deserves real change in the DA’s Office, not a promotion for Michael Morrissey’s right-hand man.”